Himalayauk himalaya Gaurav Uttarakhand
Har-Ki-Pauri saw a sea of humanity descending on the ghat to offer prayer to the Sun God. The day passed off peacefully with police making required arrangements. Haridwar SSP PRO said that the religious bath of Makar Sankranti went off peacefully in Haridwar with around 10 lakh devotees taking dip in the Ganga.
Braving the chilling cold, a large number of devotees from across the country started thronging Haridwar since early morning to take dip in the Ganga on Saturday on the occasion of Makar Sankranti.
In Dehradun, devotees were witnessed offering prayer at the temples. A priest of a temple at Survey Chowk said that Makara Sankranti is regarded as important for spiritual practices and accordingly people take a holy dip in rivers, especially Ganga. The bathing is believed to wash away sins, he added.
In view of large number devotees taking dip in the Ganga on Saturday, security was beefed up in Haridwar with the deployment of adequate police forces at various places since Friday evening.
A police officer said that the Mela area was bifurcated into five zones and 14 sectors and police were put on alert at various places like hotels, bus stations, railway stations, Dharamshala, ghats, temples and other religious places in the district. He said that to avoid untoward incident at Ganga ghats, four teams of water police comprising one head constables, eight constables and three divers were deployed. Police had also drafted traffic plan and police were deployed at various places in the district to resolve the traffic problem.
